Publications

July 2019
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2019)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Marketing; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Product; Adoption; Product Launch

Educators

18 Jul 2023
Interview

Jeffrey Rayport on Product Market Fit, Profit Market Fit and Whiplash, and More

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Doug Levin

This episode of "Lessons from Startup Life" podcast features Jeffrey Rayport, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Jeffrey specializes in teaching and researching growth-stage technology ventures and their scalability. Prior to... View Details

Keywords: Scaling And Growth; Start-up; Diversity; Equity; Inclusion; Technology; Business Startups; Product Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation

26 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Emily Truelove, MIT Sloan School of Management

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Exercise

The Elcer Products Transaction: Confidential Information for Euro Elektrische Keramische Vorrichtungen (Euro EKV), GmbH

By: James K. Sebenius

In a six-party negotiation exercise, the TNDA Corp. plans to sell the Elcer Products Division to one of four potential buyers (industrial, financial, U.S., German). This case contains confidential information for the Euro Elektrische Keramische Vorrichtungen, GmbH... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Deal; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics

June 1996
Case

Becton Dickinson: Managing the Global Enterprise, 1996

Becton Dickinson, a U.S.-based maker of medical and diagnostic devices, has been organized into a mixed structure of U.S.-based divisions and country/region organizations. In 1995, three businesses shifted to become worldwide divisions, forcing a reexamination of the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

October 2010
Journal Article

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Corporate Hierarchies

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of product market competition on various characteristics of organizational design. Using a unique panel-dataset on firm hierarchies of large U.S. firms (1986-1999) and a quasi-natural experiment (trade liberalization), we find... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Product; Markets; Competition; Organizational Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Rank and Position; Organizational Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Change; Trade; United States

Find at Harvard

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered: Can "lean" productions methods improve service industries? How can a... View Details

Web

Research - Managing the Future of Work

help employees manage their caregiving responsibilities—while reducing costs and increasing productivity By: Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman October 2017 Report Dismissed by Degrees: How degree inflation... View Details

Web

Innovation and Renovation: Optimizing Product Line Architecture - Course Catalog

longevity. Craft strategies that not only drive adoption but also sustain relevance in evolving competitive landscapes. Manage a product life cycle. Lead offerings through continuous renovation to ensure... View Details

05 Sep 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Optimal Reserve Management and Sovereign Debt

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Fabio Kanczuk

June, 2023
Article

Walking the Purpose-Talk Inside a Large Company: Sustainable Product Development as an Instance of Divergent Change

By: Marissa Kimsey, Thijs Geradts and Julie Battilana

There is a growing interest in large companies pursuing a new purpose—changing their core reason for being from a singular focus on financial gain to a renewed responsibility to people and the planet alongside profit. Yet knowledge of how a large company can walk that... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Environmental Sustainability; Mission and Purpose; Leading Change

Find at Harvard

2009
Other Unpublished Work

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Corporate Hierarchies

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of product market competition on various characteristics of organizational design. Using a unique panel-dataset on firm hierarchies of large U.S. firms (1986-1999) and a quasi-natural experiment (trade liberalization), we find... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy

2008
Working Paper

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of competition from trade liberalization on various characteristics of organizational design. We exploit a unique panel dataset on firm hierarchies (1986-1999) of large U.S. firms and find that increasing competition leads firms... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy

May 1984 (Revised July 1984)
Teaching Note

Mass Production and the Beginnings of Scientific Management, Teaching Note

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Keywords: Management; Production

26 Sep 2023
Book

Digital Strategy: A Handbook for Managing a Moving Target

excitement and the growing enthusiasm, at times even the frenzy, about these new phenomena, on the grounds of the pressing demands on managers to deal with the new reality and on academics to understand these phenomena. “Existing strategy... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology

June 2017
Teaching Note

Project Sun Devil and Project Paris

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Tony Lee is preparing to present a project to the investment committee of Howard Street Capital. He will be recommending an investment in Project Sun Devil, a high-quality 225-unit student housing rental property near Tempe, Arizona. Tony Lee will compete for capital... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Financial Analysis; Return On Assets; Accounting; Performance Measurement; Financial Ratios; Return On Equity; Financial Statements; Profitability Analysis; Portfolio Investment; Portfolio Management; Real Estate; Property; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Analysis; Real Estate Industry; United States

June 1989 (Revised November 1991)
Supplement

Ingersoll-Rand (B): Managing Multiple Channels--1986

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Peter Baldwin takes over Clabough's job and is charged with the responsibility to improve sales force morale, control expenses, and improve market share. View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Supply and Industry; Management Teams; Industrial Products Industry

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

upsell existing customers to other products in the firm's portfolio. Q: Now let's discuss the challenge of product pricing. How should businesses go about conducting a profitability analysis? A: Choosing a... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

September 2023
Supplement

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs’ Growth (B)

By: Mark Egan

As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. Their task at hand? To predict the demand for their product in the coming season, determine the appropriate investments in working... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Forecasting and Prediction; Expansion; Production; Apparel and Accessories Industry